


Gone, but Remembered Always

by HolyKingWasteLand



Series: The Start of a New Family [1]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy(ish) Ending, Aunt & Nephew (Family), Burns, Character Death, Crying, Dead Aunt May, Dead People, Father & Son (Family), Fire, Hurt Peter Parker, Hurt/Comfort, Minor OC's (just for one bit), Other, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Peter adopts him as a dad, Sad, Sad Peter Parker, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony has no choice, Tony is a dad, Trigger Warnings, all the sadness, and in the notes, be safe kiddo's, building on fire, burning flesh?, but not really, but yes really, crying in the bath because why not, news reporters, tw's in the tags
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-30
Updated: 2018-04-30
Packaged: 2019-04-29 14:51:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,886
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14475051
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HolyKingWasteLand/pseuds/HolyKingWasteLand
Summary: While Peter is doing his nightly rounds, a gas pipe explodes in his apartment complex and sets the building on fire. Mostly everyone escapes, some are injured but they're alive.Aunt May... Isn't so lucky.





	Gone, but Remembered Always

**Author's Note:**

> I'm sorry.
> 
> (Trigger Warnings: Dead bodies, fire??, burning flesh, burns, and vomit)

Peter swings around through Queens on patrol. He waves at a few familiar faces, some he see's nightly. People coming home from work or finishing up their shopping, some students leaving the cinemas with their friends or dates. It's busy tonight, but there hasn't been any crime, which Peter is more or less happy about.

It's peaceful, swinging through his neighbourhood...

 

..Until it's not.

 

It starts off with the smell of smoke, making him cough. "Karen, where's all this smoke coming from?" He asks his suit's AI. There's a beat of silence as Peter lands on the sidewalk and looks at the sky.

"It appears to be coming from the same direction as your house, Peter." Came Karen's almost-human reply.

Peter quickly springs into action, shooting webs at high building after high building. "Karen, call 911! Get me the Fire Brigade, and an ambulance!" He gets a word of confirmation from the AI as he arrives at the scene.

 

The whole building is catching fire, people inside are screaming, people outside are shielding their children's eyes and trying to get away from the heat.

"Karen, can you tell how many are inside?" He asks as he attempts to climb the building, trying to stay away from the flames.

"I'm not sure, the fire is interfering with my scanners." Peter makes a noise of distress before he takes a deep breath to calm down and pokes his head in one of the windows.

There's no one inside so he moves to the next.

 

He does this a few more times before he hears two sets of sirens in the distance. Breathing a sigh of relief, he moves to the next window, where he sees a young boy (maybe ten or eleven) holding a toddler in his arms, trying to keep her preoccupied.

"Hey!" Peter says, startling the two, but the boy shows a face of relief. "I'm here to get you out, come to the window!"

Peter sticks a bit of web above the exit and leans back so they can climb on him easier. The boy rushes over with his younger sister and helps her through the window.

 

She gets out and clutches onto Peter's chest, tears shining in her bright green eyes. "It's alright little missy, what's your name?" Peter asks her kindly as the boy is climbing out. She's quiet for a second before she whispers, "Carrie,"

Peter smiles and nods, "That's a pretty name Carrie, I'm Spider-Man! Is this your brother?" She nods and the brother falls onto Peter, making his feet slip down the bricks a tiny bit. Peter grunts quietly as he holds Carrie's brother up with one arm.

"A-And what's your brother's name Carrie?" Peter stutters slightly as he makes quick work of lowering them to the ground.

"Jacob," She whispers again, before ducking her head into Peter's shoulder.

 

They arrive safely on the ground as a Fire Truck and Ambulance come speeding towards them.

Jacob takes Carrie into his arms and thanks Peter with a grateful smile. Peter nods at him and climbs back up the wall.

Fire Fighters are hosing down the building as the ambulance people do what they can.

 

"Peter, I have alerted Tony Stark of what's happening." Karen says coolly.

"What? Why?" Came Peter's annoyed response as he scales the building once more.

"It is in my programming to alert Mr. Stark if you're ever in a dangerous situation."

"Since when??"

"Since you turned off Baby Monitor Protocol and took off your tracking device."

 

Peter groans at that and continues to duck in and out of the non-flaming windows. There is a distant sound of helicopters, and police sirens? He decides not to focus on them. He doesn't see anyone else until he comes to his own window.

 

"Ned?!" He shouts, surprised. His scared friend looks at him and relief flushes over him.

"Pe- Spider-Man! Thank goodness-" Ned sighs with relief, he's holding one of his arms and Peter can see that his left arm has slight burns, going down to his hand.

"What are you doing in my room?" Peter asks, getting ready to take Ned to the ground. Ned carefully climbs onto the windowsill and wraps his arms around Peter tightly, not being used to being up so high without standing on his feet.

"Your aunt let me in before she went downstairs a little while ago." Ned replies, clutching to Peter's suit.

 

Peter breathes his own sigh of relief and smiles.

"Don't worry, we'll be on the ground soon," Peter soothes, rubbing his friend's back as they make the slow descend. Their feet touch the ground and Peter ushers Ned towards the Ambulance where they can probably help him with his burns, seeing as no one is in a near-death state.

Peter turns away from the people and climbs up again, hopefully this will be the last time he has to.

 

He quickly checks the last remaining windows and finds no one inside. He lands back down on the ground as Tony arrives in his suit.

 

"Kid, what happened?" Tony says as his mask peals away, revealing his face.

"I'm not sure, Mr. Stark. I got out everyone I could see.. but I'm not sure if anyone else is still inside, the flames are dying down thanks to all that water but I just-"

"Tony Stark!" A news reporter interrupts him and he jumps in surprise. "Can you tell us what happened here?"

 

Suddenly there are cameras and microphones shoved in Tony's face and he looks annoyed.

"We're not sure at this moment in time, the police will be here soon, and once the fire has been dealt with they can do a proper search." He says, trying to get them to go away. This only seems to prompt more of them.

"What about you Spider-Man, do you have any idea what happened?" A male reporter asks him suddenly, making him take a step back.

 

"U-Uh.. No?" Peter answer, making the guy shove the mic closer into his face.

"You sound unsure, why is that?" The guy asks, making others put their mics up to him as well.

"No more questions, you can ask the police when they arrive." Tony finishes, pulling Peter away by his upper arm.

 

 

After almost an hour of dousing the flames, with the help of some water-helicopters as well, the fire has been successfully put out, although the building is still not safe to go in.

The Fire Fighters go inside the building with gas masks on to figure out the problem, when the call the Ambulance to get some cloth and gurneys in there.

Peter feels his blood run cold when he hears this, and Tony hears it too, but he tries to talk to the spider-kid, only to be ignored.

 

_Multiple people are dead._

 

_Your fault. Your fault. Your fault._

 

_You didn't get there in time._

 

_It's all your fault-_

 

"Spider-Man!" Tony hisses, grabbing Peter by his shoulders. "Look at me, kid."

Peter looks up at Tony meekly.

Tony's eyes soften and he loosens his grip on the boy's shoulders. "You can't save everyone." He says softly, he's told the boy so many times now, but Peter just always seems to find a way to make himself feel guilty about it. "And I know that's horrible to think about, but we try our bests. Because if you hadn't been here, many other people would have died too."

Peter nods silently, there are tears in his eyes but he can't show them. He has to remain brave.

 

Someone gasps and Peter turns around to catch a glimpse of a burned hand hanging off a gurney, with an engagement ring and wedding band that look exactly the same as-

 

Peter finds himself about to hurl and he hurriedly runs into the alley way and pulls up his mask half way to throw up in a trash can. Tears soak his mask as he thinks about the very idea of her being- He throws up again.

Tony is at his side quickly, shielding the boy from prying eyes as he rubs his back with a now free non-metal hand.

The boy sobs as he finally finishes throwing up his insides, still dry heaving at the thought.

 

"I'm sorry you had to see that Peter," Tony says, not understanding what it was that was making him be sick. "That was.." Tony shudders, deciding not to finish his sentence.

"Aunt May," Peter barely whispers, it's too quiet for Tony to understand, but enough for him to hear that the kid is talking.

"What's that?" He asks, kneeling down, gagging at the smell.

"T-that was.." A fresh onsweep of tears. Tony leans forward and pulls the kid into his chest gently.

 

"You gonna be sick again?"

A soft shake of the head tells Tony that he isn't.

"Alright, then let's get you back to the New Avenger's Facility- we gotta come up with a better name for that."

He pulls the mask back down over the boy's head, ignoring how he'll have to clean it later, and picks him up.

"Hold on tight, kid."

 

 

Tony lands on his bedroom's balcony and helps the kid to stand on his own, taking the mask off the boy's head before his own.

"You good?" Tony asks, holding Peter's forearms to balance him. Peter nods and lets go and takes a few steps before his knees start to give out. "Whooaaaa okay okay-" Tony catches him and practically drags him to the bathroom.

He sits Peter on the closed toilet, puts the mask on the bench-top, and starts running the water into his Jacuzzi. He plugs the hole and lets the water start to fill up.

 

Tony turns around and looks at Peter, "Okay kid, there's bubbles, shampoo and conditioner, and soap with a loofah. There's a towel handing up-" He stands and walks over to it, setting a timer looking thing on the wall, which makes the towel rotate on two metal bar things, "which will be warm by the time you get out."

He turns back to the kid, "I'll bring in some clean clothes from your last stay here and get a room sorted out for you.. Anything else you need?" Tony asks, still holding up two fingers from counting.

Peter shrugs.

 

The engineer sighs softly and walks closer to him, kneeling down to be level with him. "If you need anything, anything at all, press that red buzzer over there and I'll be right up okay?" Tony says, trying to be extra gentle with the barely responsive kid.

He gives Peter a soft slightly forced smile and puts a hand on his head.

"Come down when you're ready." He says, finality in his voice.

 

Tony leaves swiftly, closing the door behind him with a soft click.

It takes Peter a minute but his brain tries to get him to get in the bath, even if his heart just wants them to sit there forever...

The smell kicks in. It hits him like a wave and his nose crinkles in disgust. "Gross.." He mutters, stripping down until he's completely naked. It's suddenly very cold and he quickly climbs into the warm water, the tap still running, making a nice sound.

 

Peter sighs and sinks into the water until he is submerged up until his cheekbones, leaving out his eyes nose and mouth so he can see and breathe. He takes a breath and goes under, raising his hands and washes his face before coming back up, (this time his full head out of the water) and sits up.

The smell of smoke is clinging to his hair and he reaches for the shampoo bottle.

 

_They're dead._

 

_**She's** dead._

 

He freezes with his hand wrapped around the cylindrical bottle, a wave of nausea hits him, but this time he controls it.

 

_Focus on something else. _Focus on something else. Focus on something else...__

 

Tony.

He helped keep him upright when he continuously fell over, he didn't question when he'd started throwing up.

 

_Something else Peter!_

 

The Movies! He was going to see the new Star Wars movie with Ned!

Ned.

He'd have to call him later, make sure he's all right.

 

The nausea passes after a long moment and he lifts the bottle and squeezes some of the goo onto his hand. He puts down the bottle and turns off the taps with his free hand before he starts washing his hair.

He hums softly, trying to keep his attention off of the things that transpired not fifty minutes ago and then rinses out the bubbles. He moves on to the conditioner and then washes his body as bed he can while in the water.

 

It takes a little more than twenty minutes for Peter to muster up the courage to leave the warm liquid, but when he does, the towel is warm and fluffy. He steps out of the bath and wraps the warm cloth around himself as the bath drains of its own volition. Tony probably programmed it to do that. He hears a click and a soft hiss as the towel warmer thingy turns itself off as well.

 

Peter sighs and dries himself quickly, before wrapping the towel around his waist and treks into Tony's bedroom- somewhere he _never_ thought he would be.

He spots the clothes neatly folded on Tony's bed with a small yellow post-it note stuck to them.

 

_These are for you Underoos -T_

At least there's a nice sort of familiarity.

 

He takes the clothes and puts them on, before hanging the towel back up to dry.

 

"You're much cleaner than Mr. Stark," Comes FRIDAY's robotic but pleasant voice. Peter's mouth twitches upwards in a smile and he looks up at the ceiling in thanks before he exits the room.

"Hey FRIDAY, what room is Mr. Stark in?.." Peter asks softly, his throat is raw and hurts from all the smoke he inhaled- which Tony will hound him about later.

The floor lights up with yellow spots and Peter follows them silently.

 

 

Tony is sitting in the lounge, rubbing his temple as Rhodes sets a cup of warm tea in front of him. The billionaire picks it up and takes a sip but pulls it away and makes a face. "This isn't coffee," He states matter-of-factly.

Rhodes gives him a small smile and puts a hand on his back, rubbing it in soothing circles. "I know Tony. But it's late and coffee won't help you to sleep," The man says not unkindly. Tony huffs and takes a small sip, not enjoying the flavour but not totally hating it.

Natasha enters the room holding her own cup of tea and takes a sit on the opposite couch to the men.

 

"Nat," Tony greets, exhausted, making the Russian Assassin raise an eyebrow from behind her cup.

"What's up with him?" She asks, but Rhodes just shrugs softly.

 

"Spider-Man," Tony starts with a sigh. "There was a fire at an apartment complex, he got most of the people out but.. two of them didn't make it. He's taking it pretty hard." The two others in the room nod in understanding, and Rhodey is about to say something when the door opens and a short brunet kid comes in with an unreadable expression.

 

"Kid," Tony says, putting the cup down and stands up. Peter looks up at him and offers a small forced smile, but Tony sees through it. "C'mere" The man says holding his arms open for a hug. Peter looks hesitant but gives in and lets himself fall into Tony's arms, where he can hide his face in the man's shirt and pretend everything's okay for just a minute. Because this hug is nice, but it's nothing like Aunt May's hugs.

This hug smells of motor oil and metal, this hug feels like he's being engulfed by Tony's arms, nothing like his Aunt's.

Her hugs smell of burned dinners, and take out chinese. And he gets to hold her in his arms, because he's taller than her, and he gets to hold her in his arms and tell her everything's gonna be okay. Because he always has to be strong for her.

But then Tony comes along with _this_ hug and Peter can feel the weight of the world slowly crumbling down on his shoulders.

 

Tony probably doesn't even know why he's upset.

Tony probably doesn't realise that his Aunt is gone.

Tony probably doesn't understand why this kid is taking it so hard.

But Tony doesn't press, or make fun, just holds him in his arms and strokes his back while the Spider-boy clings to him like it's his lifeline.

 

Natasha and Rhodes nod to each other and quietly slip out of the room, undetected by the boy.

 

Tony gently guides them to the couch where Peter curls up in Tony's lap and lets himself be comforted, embarrassment and awkwardness be damned.

And as Tony holds Peter in his arms, the boy realises that he might not have to be strong all the time anymore.

And as Peter clings to Tony, the man realises that he might need this boy more than he leads on.

 

While they hold each other in their arms they both believe, _for just a moment_ , that everything is going to be okay.

**Author's Note:**

> Yep.  
> So this is my first fic in this series, hope its okay haha.  
> Tony is a lil ooc but its okay because he's cute  
> k bye bye~
> 
> [My Tumblr!](https://holykingwasteland.tumblr.com/)


End file.
